"Personally, I don't think it's a rivalry," he said after the Golden Bears posted a 69-59 win over the Cardinal on Sunday to move into a tie for first place in the Pac-12 Conference. "Like Coach (Mike Montgomery) said, whoever sits at the top -- that's our rival. We want to end up in first."

For now, the Bears (17-5) sit at the top with Washington, both 7-2 at the halfway point of the conference schedule. Oregon and Colorado are 6-3, Stanford, Arizona and UCLA tied for fifth at 5-4.

"It's just a question of how many people you're going to be tied with," Montgomery said of the congestion at the top of the standings. "Everybody's trying to separate, and it's not happening very much. We have to win at home, and we did."

Playing before a capacity crowd of 11,877, Cal stayed unbeaten in 14 games at Haas Pavilion. "The crowd was like I used to remember it when I came over before," said Montgomery, in his fourth season in Berkeley after 18 years at Stanford.

"It was a great environment for us," Gutierrez said. "I don't think I've ever seen the gym that packed."

Stanford (15-6), which has lost three straight games -- all on the road -- will be happy to get back to Maples Pavilion.

"We've had a tough stretch," coach Johnny Dawkins said. "We thought there'd be a lot of parity in this conference, and there has been."

There was a lot of parity in the game, too, until Cal used offensive rebounding and defensive pressure to take charge in the final 7 minutes.

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Clinging to a 48-45 lead, the Bears used an 8-1 burst to charge into a 56-46 advantage. It started when Gutierrez tipped an offensive rebound of a missed free throw to Harper Kamp, who converted a layup with 6:48 left.

"I was trying to grab it. Somehow it ended up in his hands," Gutierrez said. "That was a good play for us."

So was his steal and breakaway layup moments later.

The Bears had struggled to run their half-court sets against Stanford's huge defense, so Montgomery had them spread the floor to create mismatches. It took Stanford out of position under the boards, and allowed Cal to secure 11 offensive rebounds.

"They had second-chance opportunities, and those hurt us down the stretch," Dawkins said.

"The key thing," Montgomery added, "was we were getting stops on the defensive end."

When backup center Robert Thurman dunked off a pass from Allen Crabbe with 3:57 left, the Bears had completed a 12-4 run that stretched the lead to 60-49.

Crabbe led Cal with 18 points, and Kamp had 15 -- his best offensive game in two months. Justin Cobbs scored 13 points, and Gutierrez contributed 11 points and a career-high 12 rebounds as the Bears forged a 41-31 edge against the Pac-12's top rebounding team.

Redshirt freshman Stefan Nastic scored a career-high 11 points for Stanford, matching the total by Dwight Powell, who fouled out late. Stanford, which rallied from a nine-point hole to lead 33-32 at halftime, shot just 33 percent in the second half, including 1 for 9 from the 3-point arc.

Cal has won 17 straight home games dating to last season, equaling the third-longest streak in school history.

The sellout was Cal's first since Feb. 27, 2010, against Arizona State on the day the Bears clinched at least a tie for their first regular-season conference title in 50 years.

Dawkins changed his lineup to skew matchups, replacing guard Aaron Bright with forward Josh Huestis, who got his first career start.